*FILM: The 5th Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival kicks things off with Garage by director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran. This is followed by a reception with the Consul General of Ireland, Emer Deane. According to LS, "other highlights include Speed Dating, a romantic comedy about a lovelorn amnesiac; the award winning Irish-language feature film Kings, and finally The Undertaking, a documentary about Irish American undertaker and poet Thomas Lynch, who is......

We'll 'fess up. We haven't been to the Cow Palace since the 2005 Tattoo Expo. With that said, we're a bit torn with how to feel about the possibility of the Cow Palace being demolished. With such historical events as the Beatles playing there and John F. Kennedy speaking to the masses about starting the Peace Corp, on that hand alone, we'd hate to see this place go. The other hand, however, has to admit......

Jackie Speier runs for Congress again, after a 29-year break. ...

Good grief, this Chinese New Year business sure does go on for a long time. This weekend, it's a New Year Parade and a New Year Community Fair that'll be tying up traffic. A ton of major east-west lines will be affected on Saturday afternoon -- the 5, the 71, the 38, the F, the 1, and so on. Also causing trouble: the weather. Muni can barely keep its head above water when it's dry,......

This is most exciting news, folks. The theater scene here sucks so hard now that even the San Francisco Police Department is working on the problem. Check it: Subject: Broadway Community Meeting with SFPD's Captain Dudley Thursday, February 21, 6PM, Tel-Hi Neighborhood Center, 660 Lombard Street. Captain Dudley from Central Station will hold a meeting to update neighbors on the current situation on the Broadway corridor. Topics to include:......

Hal Holbrook in "Mark Twain Tonight": Julia Sugarbaker's husband and Oscar nominee for this year's Into the Wild, Broadway veteran Hal Holbrook won a Tony Award in 1966 for playing satirical American writer in this performance, and he's been doing it ever since. This one-man show draws on observations taken from Twain's own material. A real treat for admirers of American literature. The show starts tonight at 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center......

23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor and Community Breakfast this morning at the San Francisco Hilton...

Paul Auster: Sure, metafictionist Auster wrote the screenplays to Smoke, Blue in the Face, and The Brooklyn Follies, but he also penned the phenomenal collection of PoMo detective-fiction tales, The New York Trilogy, his best work to date. Auster appears live with San Francisco International Film Festival Director Graham Leggat after a screening of his latest film, The Inner Life of Martin Frost. Witness him in action at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community......

Oh Lord. Is this for real? From the SFist inbox this morning we received alarming news that Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel, like, totally hate Africans, or something like that. After the New Year's Eve announcement that the two were to enter holy matrimony, one concerned reader called "Mayor Newsom's Communication Office," wondering if the "rock he bought for his fiancee was not a blood diamond." After talking to an "incompetent" Newsom staff member......

-- Those rectangular glassy lofts on Folsom and Fourth Streets are, in fact, award-winning rectangular glassy lofts. Also, love the windows. [Curbed] -- What to do in SF when it pours. [Gridskipper] -- Democrats having a spine? What a novel idea! [BeyondChron] -- Behold! Tinkerman's top 10 musical experiences and releases of 2007. [SFBG] -- Matt Gonzalez caught shopping at Community Thrift on Valencia. Dude, we also l-o-v-e Community Thrift! Why, it's where we......

Cris takes some time off the Bonds case to support her lady. No one pulled out a bitch's clump of hair. That's the big news. Oh, and some other stuff happened, ahem: The Club's membership voted tonight on the February 2008 ballot and the June 2008 State Senate primary, and the endorsements are... Prop 92 (Community College Funding) - Yes Props 94 - 97 (Gaming Compacts) - No Prop A (Neighborhood Parks Bond) -......

The Examiner lavishes Gavin with praise today, just hours before his annual State of the City address. "Am I satisfied? No," Newsom tells the Examiner. "But the fact is we’re moving in the right direction." Whats' more, it seems, he's "in campaign mode." Oh, Gavin, when aren't you in campaign mode? That's what we love about you....

Destination Turk Street in the TL, our First Lady Maria Shriver is coming to town to celebrate Family Day ("a day to eat dinner with your children"), and in part for "It About WE", some sort of it-takes-a-village altruism awareness program designed "to make [charity] service fun, rewarding and accessible." ...

Last year's Park(ing) Day at Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street. It's Park(ing) Day, folks. Today's the day REBAR, a San Francisco-based art collective, thought of taking parking spaces and turning them into public ones by creating fun-sized parks. Now cities all over the country are getting in on it. It's a fun idea and we recommend you check any number of these spaces out today before this happens to them. Community Walk has a......

-- "Hold Yr Horses": Vowel dismissive DJ Rchrd Oh?! spins electro, no wave, '80s, '90s, hip hop, disco punk, synth pop, and more tonight at this TL dive bar's gipster club night. Music goes from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Aunt Charlie's Lounge, 133 Turk; $3. -- Mahjong: Drop In and Play: Amos 'n' Andy, mahjong and platinum hair, but...oh, pardon us. We got carried away into song thinking about playing this fun......

-- Daft Punk's Electroma: Pinocchio-ish road movie about two robots -- played by Daft Punk members Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich -- and their quest to become human. Riot In Belgium, the Bang Gang DJs, Dandi Wind, and Richie Panic & Jefrodisiac perform tonight before and after the movie. Doors open at 7 p.m. at Mezzanine, 444 Jesse (at Mint); free with RSVP at going.com. -- Justice League Wiffle Ball Game: According to Laughing......

Let the bourgeois battle begin: Green Connect and SF Community Clean Team are looking to clean up Warm Water Cove, the waterfront park at 24th and Michigan Streets, this coming Saturday morning. (And want you to wakeup up before 9 a.m. to pull weeds?!) Many an art school student brandishing a can of spray paint and local musicians like this place for 'spressing themselves or for throwing afternoon concerts. While others are understandably looking......

-- Bad Boys of Runway: Project Runway enfant terribles Santino Rice and Jeffrey Sebelia help host and judge a fashion show along with the fascinating Denise Hale and the hilarious Marga Gomez. Juanita MORE! performs an opening number that’s not to be missed. (Like, seriously, don't.) The pre-show prefaces a screening of The Women (1939), with a VIP reception afterwards. Partial proceeds benefit CUAV (Community United Against Violence), so…yay! Show starts at 7:30 p.m.......

-- Greg Behrendt: SF-native, author of He's Just Not That into You (comfortingly known to many a confused single gal as a symptom of Peter-Pan Syndrome), and comedian takes a break from his talk show to make you snicker/slap your knee. The sheer hilarity starts at 8 p.m. at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 915 Columbus; tickets are $25. -- Blur, "Transgender & Gender Variant" Support Group: Pretty much what it says right there; a good place......

Prolific, ornery, talented, unpredictable, easy on the eyes, genius, bastard - there are many ways to try and describe Ryan Adams, but at this point if you've heard of him, you've probably formed some sort of opinion. In his new single "Two" he sings: "I got a really good heart, I just can't catch a break." Whether or not you buy that, we're still loving his new CD. Easy Tiger is built on the......

Next Thursday, July 19th, Sonic Youth perform 1988's double album Daydream Nation in its entirety at Berkeley Community Theatre. The acclaimed album is lauded for its artistic vision and flowing dynamics from lulling instrumentals to all-out noise. We have a pair of tickets for one lucky winner to (re)discover the underground masterpiece. Watch the video for "Teen Age Riot" and enter to win. (Contest ends 7/15. Winner will be notified via email.) Tonight catch brazen......

As promised, the San Francisco Mime Troupe performed in Dolores Park for the public last Wednesday and last weekend. It was the premier of the group's show "Making a Killing," which lampoons the current administration. We dropped by the Sunday performance; the photo above is during a charming ditty where "Condi Rice" and "Dick Cheney" were arguing over who was more popular. ...

Yay, more film festivals! We love it. Next up: the SF Jewish Film Festival, which runs from July 19 to July 26 (with some additional screenings around the area through August 6). You've got a wide array of movies to choose from, including movies about Jewish boxers and documentaries from Israel -- but also, the always-fun film festival staples of romantic movies set in Paris and plaintive movies about family drama. What seems especially notable:......

Photo of Jesse Jackson's address in the Western Addition. ...

As reported by local crime blog SF Metblogs, we've been seeing an awful lot of violent crime lately. And, as their first commenter points out, it's the brown people who are to blame. Well, enough is enough -- we can't go on. We can't go on no more. No. Only press conferences, snappy slogans, and celebrity do-gooding can save us now! From a recent press release: Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition plans......

Saturday.... in the park... wish it were the Fourth of July! (That's the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra performing the Chicago classic above). Here's your events for today: --Supervisor Dreamy, Ross Mirkarimi's picking up litter and planting trees as part of the Community Clean Team in the Inner Sunset today from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Meet at the City Parking Lot on 9th between Irving and Judah. --Close out the month-long National Queer Arts......

Well, isn't it interesting that this is happnening right after the Board of Supes votes to leave PG&E and pursue Community Choice Energy? Today, Gavin (Representing the City and County of San Francisco), PG&E, and Golden Gate Energy Company agreed to study harnessing the San Francisco Bay's tides for a greener kind of power. We're talking power that has zero-emmissions and is renewable. The study is slated to last a year and will examine envionmental impact, economic feasibility, and other issues regarding the practicality of harnessing energy from natural, highly predictable tide power....

--It's Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas's 100th anniversary this year! They're celebrating around the world, and San Francisco's contribution is a staged reading of Stein's last book (Brewsie and Willie) and Toklas's first (The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook). $12, 7 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California (x Presidio). --As part of this month's Queer Arts Festival, the LGBT Community Center presents "Are You There God? It's Me, Ben McCoy" (brilliant title), a......

Geek out! At Ask a Scientist SF, a monthly lecture slash happy hour with a guest speaker on some sciencey topic. This month's meet-up touches on everything you ever wanted to know about terra incognita, Antarctica, with Kurt Cuffey, a UC Berkeley professor of geography. Get there by 7pm to snag a beer and a seat. Axis Cafe, 1208 Eighth St., SF. If Le Tigre and The Shangri-Las had a British love child, it......

--Check out Ross Mirkarimi's Gavin hair! Didn't someone else try this too? --When is a dognapping a terrorist act? (Hint: animal rights activists may be involved). --Apple TV isn't doing so well --Tapioca Ed turns in his residency paperwork to the SF City Attorney a day early. --Keep affairs on your own side of the bridge! People are starting to subpoena Fastrak records in divorce cases. --It's queer senior prom at the LGBT Community......